Alicia Imas

I believe that art has always been part of my life; maybe that's why I started studying Architecture. When I left my studies I started working for an airline company, but I kept in touch with art by taking some decoration workshops, amongst others. Eventually, I got my BA in Psychology, but my curious soul needed something else. I asked myself: where can I throw the creative need that lives inside me? The answer was to start wandering around several art workshops. It is there where I began my journey.

These days, I've found a way to free up my artistic expression at HeribertoZorrilla and Helena Distefano's Research Workshops. I feel that their proposal meets up to my professional and artistic standard; it means to search the depths of human beings. Through my paintings I allow myself to search for and discover my true self.

I feel that painting, creating, letting the brush flow, letting the color surprise... are all acts of freedom. Freedom is maybe the most sought after aspect in my life, when I paint, I am free.

What is Essentialism?

Essentialism is an Argentine artistic movement founded by HeribertoZorrilla and Helena Distéfano in 1986. In their first Manifesto, they declare a brave defense of the painting, whose expiration was proclaimed by those days. It was born in opposition to the emergence of nihilism in art, which experienced a boom during the 70´s. Under the guise of art´s death, the artist had undressed the painting of any possibility of importance. Art demystified itself in exchange for the sacrilege of success.

The essentialist artist doesn´t look for purpose of his work outside, it arises as a result of an internal elaboration where there´s not a previous project, there´s an approximation to that mysterious zone where human interrogations bring up. The essentialist artist doesn´t use his previous projects as a starting point, he conceives the painting as a transformation and places it in the core of his own essence, in doing this he attempts to synchronize his feelings in order to establish his painting as a fact of life, and therefore linking it to the world in which he lives in.

First task is to select elements (graphics, chromatics, textures, etc.)he manipulates, organizes, and chooses the way to fit together those essential elements by which painting can become an expression of that feeling inside which is impossible to be written down, unspeakable, and demonstrates the universality by which it is possible to communicate with other people.